Stargazing
by Supergirlprime
Summary: when the brothers have a breather and a night with no plans, they take a drive and go stargazing. its important not to forget your own history. just a soft one-shot.


I guess its set during mid 9th season, for class we had to write a story based on an article we found on our date of birth. I found an article about space dust accumulating on earth and it turned into this.

Enjoy.

Star-gazing was always so much fun. To look up at the night sky far from the light of the city's and peer into the vast cosmos! They hardly ever did it anymore, what with all the troubles and problems going on lately, and ever since they had a real place to call home, they spent less time on the road. More time learning about their own family history from the documents and information in the base. But still, it's always important to remember your own history.

It was an early December evening, and for the first time in a while, all was well. There was no deadline for the end of the world, no research to save the day, no wars in their lives. No lies.

Both Dean and his brother were reading casually. Something they both haven't done in a while. Sam was surprised to see his brother's nose buried in The Great Gatsby.

"I'm reading it because of the movie!" Dean defended himself. Sam let it go because he was reading the Goblet of Fire. They've both been reading quietly for about an hour before Dean breaks the silence.

"Y'know what we haven't done in a while?" he asks the air in front of him. Sam places his finger on the page and closes the book around it.

"What?" he looks up at his brother. "Movies? Reading? Had fun for the sake of fun?" Dean shoots a glare at his younger brother.

"We haven't gone star-gazing in a long time." He says in a wistful voice. His voice unusually soft and sentimental.

"But we have time now." Sam replies, dog-earing the page and grabbing his coat.

He turns when he realizes his brother isn't walking to the door with him to find him still in the same position with an incredulous look on his face.

"What, you start talking about star-gazing and expect me not to want to go now?"

Dean grins at his brother and gets up, Sam notices that he tucks the slim paperback into an inside pocket of his jacket but doesn't say a word about it.

Just before they reach the door Sam asks quietly

"Want to ask Cas to join us?" Dean pauses, considering the question. He shakes his head. "Nah, you're stuck with just me little brother." Sam grins, a little pleased that it was just the two of them, just like it used to be. Even though Castiel was a good friend and might enjoy star-gazing, it was a thing that they did alone. They never did it with anyone else. Even dad. Besides, he'd be fine alone. They both had their phones on them and Kevin was in his room. There was no question of inviting him along. He wouldn't understand.

"Any specific place in mind?" Dean asked, pulling out of the small road.

"Just drive." Dean nodded, turning on the cassette player. But to keep the mood, he didn't blast the classic rock music, and just hummed along. It took about an hour, but they found the right place. Dean pulled the Impala off the small road and into the weed-filled field and killed the engine. There were a few sparse trees in the distance but none of them obstructed the view of the stars. Without speaking, the brothers exited the car and sat on the hood. Sam leaned back against the windshield, his long legs stretching over the still warm hood of the impala. Dean sat himself down on the edge of the hood, his feet on the bumper and slowly lay on his back. He liked the heat of the engine on his back as he gazed at the stars.

They both sat in silence for some time. Just looking at the stars. No distractions, no demons, no angels. Just the stars. Sam saw Dean raise his arm and trace out a few of the constellations they both knew. The moon was a Cheshire cat smile at three quarters full and tilted. He could just make out the seas of tranquility and serenity, just grey smudges smeared on the white surface of the lunar rock. Sam didn't bother naming and finding the shapes in the stars, but before he could stop himself he had found Orion, the mighty hunter.

He remembered the night that Dean had taught him that one. He was still young, but he knew what their dad did.

"So is he like the leader of all hunters?" a young Sam asked his big brother as they stargazed, lying down on the roof of a motel in the middle-of-nowhere.

"Nah, he killed a Ton of hard to kill monsters, and the story says is that the gods were so happy about it that when he died they put him in the sky to watch over all hunters." Dean had made that up pretty much on the spot, but it wasn't so far from the original legend.

"Wow." Sam breathed. "So he's watching over Dad?"

"Mmm-hmm." Dean nodded, pulling his brother closer to him on the cold roof.

A few years later he found Orion's story while looking through a book on Greek mythology and had been a little hurt that his brother lied to him.

Sam suppressed the chuckle that threatened to emerge from his chest from the memory. But the darkness of the night hid his smile.

It was just luck that they happened to be looking in the same area at the same time as the meteor shot past. A small white light with a sliver thread of a tail.

"Whoa." Said dean. "A shooting star! Make a wish Sammy!" Sam snorted.

"The last time you told me that was before I had acne."

"Make a wish anyway." His brother waved his arm at the sky.

"Sure, but you gotta wish too."

"Okay." His brother shrugged, closing his eyes for a moment. In the dark, Sam could see his brother's lips moving but couldn't make out what he was saying.

"Your turn." Sam closed his eyes and wished to remember this night forever.

"That wasn't a shooting star dean, it was a meteor falling into earth's atmosphere. Burning as it hits the atmosphere."

"I know that, geek-boy." Sam could almost hear his brother rolling his eyes at him. But he heard the smile in his brother's voice, so he continued.

"There are so many rocks that come into earth's atmosphere every day! Most of them are small enough to break in the atmosphere and just land as dust, in fact over 30 thousand tons of dust from space lands on earth each year!"

"Really?" Dean asked. Sam heard no sarcasm in the question. Once in a while he was able to rattle off a fact that would impress him brother. Not often, but enough to keep the annoying title of geek-boy.

"Yup." He replied, tuning his head back to the heavens. The heaven… he remembered the angels falling. He was in pain, and half-conscious at the time, but he recalled the burning angels falling, down, down, down. Red fire around them, falling, falling…

Sam shut his eyes tight and shoved the memory away. They didn't discuss that night. They probably would never discuss that night.

Sam stretched his long limbs over the now cold car hood. Hearing many satisfying clicks as his joints shifted. Dean shifted too, he moved from his seat on the edge of the car and moved closer to his brother, sharing the windshield with him.

Neither hunter said a word as for the first time in a long time, they took a little time to remember personal history, to make some memories. To have a little breather.

And to each brother it was a piece of heaven, under the stars.


End file.
